During the reign of George III the collecting of antique engraved cameos and intaglios reached a high point as a fashionable pursuit, and the King’s acquisition of Consul Smith’s collection in 1762 placed him in the first rank of collectors. Demand for ancient gems exceeded supply and the art of glyptics (gem-cutting) enjoyed a revival, especially in Rome, where artists such as Anton Pichler (1697-1779) made copies of antique cameos as well as portraits of contemporaries.

The Scottish modeller James Tassie pioneered the casting of imitation cameos and intaglios in a new form of fired vitreous paste of which the largest constituents were silica, lead oxide and potassium oxide. He produced small portrait medallions and reproductions of ancient gems in exceptionally large numbers (the number of different gems made in the course of his career exceeded 20,000). Although Tassie’s paste formula was a closely guarded secret, the reproductive nature of the process led to widespread piracy of his models. The catalogue of Tassie’s products published by R.E. Raspe in 1791 lists nine separate cameos and intaglios of George III and three of Queen Charlotte. For these two-sided pendants of the King and Queen, Tassie’s profiles have been mounted by a jeweller on a background of bloodstone to imitate a carved cameo with two strata.

Catalogue entry adapted from George III & Queen Charlotte: Patronage, Collecting and Court Taste, London, 2004